Given the boom in ideas-driven programming coming to Chicago, such a conversation is hardly far-fetched.

Chicago Ideas Week, founded by Groupon co-founder/director Brad Keywell and debuting last year with Bill Clinton, is broadening its scope and doubling the number of programs to be presented in Year 2. On Tuesday Ideas Week organizers will announce the first group of speakers for its 2012 event, running Oct. 8-14.

They include America Online co-founder Steve Case talking about “Disruptive Innovation”; Felicity Aston, the first woman to ski solo across Antarctica, on a panel called “Explorers: Seeking the Edge”; Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel (whose magazine has an official relationship with Ideas Week) discussing the “Future of News”; and Pulitzer Prize-winners Jon Meacham (now Random House's executive editor) and Raymond Bonner on separate programs about “Storytellers: The Power of Perspective” and “Criminal Justice,” respectively.

In all there will be 30 such “Talks” (90-minute sessions featuring two to five speakers) compared with last year's 17, plus four “Megatalks” (evening programs featuring a “globally recognized” speaker) compared with last year's two, and 100 “Labs” (behind-the-scenes looks at, say, the CTA or Eli's Cheesecake) compared with last year's 40. The complete schedule and most of the featured speakers will be announced later, as will some youth programming.

“It's a lot bigger,” Chicago Ideas Week executive director Jessica Malkin said. “We've expanded our programming to include a lot of disciplines. We're covering a lot more of the humanities and arts versus last year when we weren't able to go quite as deep in that.”

The word “humanities” may prompt some ears to prick up given that the Chicago Humanities Festival will be presenting the bulk of its 2012 program Nov. 1-11, two-and-a-half weeks after Chicago Ideas Week. (The Humanities Festival's day at Northwestern University will take place on the last day of Ideas Week: Oct. 14.)

The Humanities Festival, launched by the Illinois Humanities Council in 1990 and operating independently since 1997, brings together a cross-disciplinary array of academics, authors, professionals and performers around a unifying theme, which in this election year will be “America.” It calls itself “a festival that celebrates ideas in the context of civic life.”

“It's a big benefit to us because there are lot of people learning that that's an interesting way to spend your time,” Flack said of Ideas Week. He noted that with last year's Humanities Festival, following Ideas Week for the first time, “we had our best year in terms of ticket revenue.”

Flack compared the proliferation of “programs about exploring intellectual ideas” to Chicago's bustling theater scene. “The people who are in the habit of going to the theater go to the theater, and the more theaters there are, the more people who go,” he said.

Malkin said she thinks it's “wonderful” that the city has room for both series. “We love the Humanities Festival, and they're a great platform, and we're just a different platform in the same city,” she said, noting that Ideas Fest serves a “younger demographic.” Flack said the Humanities Festival has been skewing younger in recent years.

“Brad (Keywell) reached out to the mayor very early on and talked to him about his idea,” said David Spielfogel, the city's chief of policy and strategic planning. “The mayor was ... very engaged in trying to attract speakers.”

Spielfogel said Emanuel arranged for fellow mayors Michael Bloomberg of New York and Kasim Reed of Atlanta to join him for last year's Megatalk about cities, moderated by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. The policy chief said the mayor plans to participate this year.

Spielfogel likened Emanuel's enthusiasm for Ideas Week to his desire for Chicago to host the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates this month and the NATO Summit in May.